Italian fashion house Miroglio has launched Italy’s first NFC loyalty programme, in partnership with Telecom Italia and using the latest Olivetti touchscreen cash registers.

Shoppers at Miroglio’s five Vestebene Factory Store outlets are the first to use the new system, which is soon set to be expanded to cover all eighty of the company’s sales outlets across Italy.

Customers can use their NFC-equipped Telecom Italia phones to collect loyalty points, check their balance and receive rewards via text message. Miroglio Fashion’s data-processing centre, connected via broadband to the cash registers, automatically registers new purchases and then sends out text messages to customers with their points totals and any discount vouchers to which they are entitled.

In the future, customers will also receive text messages whenever new collections arrive in store and at the start of sales. The addition of mobile payment services are also planned.

Miroglio aims to gradually eliminate its paper-based discount vouchers and its fidelity cards in a bid to lower its administrative costs.

“We’re particularly pleased with this project,” says Giuseppe Maurizio, CEO at Miroglio Fashion, “because first and foremost it brings together two companies that are premium leaders in their respective industries. Furthermore, the project underlines our keenness to innovate, and our business’s commitment to ‘stamping out waste’.”